LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

CLUELESS ABOUT ADVERTISING

Wanna know why ads like Illy's three coffee cans with the “cutesy” one-line caption/headline (The Makeover Maven, May) will always fail?

It's because some creative idiot and the agency art director got all excited about the graphics before they had a clue, or the inkling of a clue, about what the message should be. This leads to the First Law of Ads That Flop: Fancy graphics with weak, vague, cute headlines and captions will always lose out to ads with strong user-benefit messages and user-self-interest-oriented headlines and captions.

The way to generate these winners is to think cheap. Assume that the ad or mailing budget only has money for black ink on white paper and that the whole story has to be told in words only. No graphics. After the complete story or ad is told in words, then look for graphics that will complement the story and enhance the message. Graphics that complement the headlines, captions and the message will have a synergistic impact on the reader.

One of the tragedies of the poor thinking behind ads like this is that a lot of good money is wasted because many agencies and clients don't understand what advertising is supposed to accomplish. They continue to get away with such incompetence because top management at these agencies and companies are equally clueless about advertising.
Lewis R. Elin
DR Consultant
Chicago

GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Good column on mailing the deceased (Loose Cannon, June 1). I have had the exact same problem. My father passed away in September 2001. I have put his name on the DMA's deceased file and almost five years later I still get solicitations. Most of them are nonprofits…and yes, my father contributed to all of them. But no matter how many times I send the mail back, it just keeps coming.

Being a direct marketer, I thought the best thing to do was let them know so they wouldn't waste these ad dollars. I really think they feel that they have a new address (mine), so they want to keep mailing him. Even after five years of no donations, most of them won't give up. (I can only assume he must have been a big donor.)

Perhaps I will make a list of all of them and send it to Direct to print. Maybe that will get their attention!

Thanks for another great column and being right on the money!
Steve Leighton
Leighton Consulting
Victoria, MN

I could not agree more with Richard Levey.

We still receive solicitation mail addressed to my deceased father-in-law seven years after he passed away. The solicitations are addressed to a residence he never lived in and in a city he came to just to visit us.

We have long since stopped trying to notify these organizations. The solicitations are “trashed.” We would never make a contribution to any of them because it would be a waste of money.

As a matter of fact, for organizations we do contribute to, we request they send one solicitation per year between September and December. If they cannot (or will not) comply with the request, they do not see our check. I do not like “charitable” badgering.
Al Stanton
President
Stanton Direct Marketing
Elmira, NY

The deceased-mailing story is pretty typical, unfortunately. I've had a somewhat similar experience after going through a divorce. I bought a new townhome and had my address changed.

Somehow the wise database people out there have decided that I should get mail addressed to my ex at my new address, and some have gone so far as to change my name on material I used to receive in my name to his. So I decided that since he isn't at that address to donate, volunteer, etc., the mail should go in the garbage.

The March of Dimes, for whom I have sent out mailers in the past, has changed my name to my ex's. When they solicited me to send the mailings out via the phone, I explained that the person that the mail was addressed to has never been at this address and was not available to do the work for them this time. The person on the phone was quite upset with me and tried to explain that there were two different lists out there and that only the large direct mail list was incorrect. (Hmm — then why did I get a note from one of my neighbors addressed to my ex?)

Don't you love that householding option where they arbitrarily change your information? I had a similar experience when I asked AARP to take my ex off my membership. Now I get two — one addressed to him and one to me!

Yup, that worked well. If they want me to buy, donate or respond, they'd better address the piece to me. Otherwise, the recycle pile is going to get larger.
Nancy Engle
Des Moines, IA

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